Tony Kanaan was the dominant force in The ABC Supply/A.J. Foyt 225at The Milwaukee Mile, leading 127 laps at a record race-winning pace of 133.513 miles per hour to score his first IndyCar Series victory of the 2006 season.

Tony Kanaan

Sam Hornish Jr.

It was another successful race weekend for Honda and the engineers of Honda Performance Development, as the 18-car field of Honda HI6R Indy V-8 engines once again performed reliably throughout the event, with no engine-related failures throughout more than 5,500 miles of practice, qualifying and racing.

Starting on outside of the second row in fourth position, Kanaan moved into second behind pole- qualifying Helio Castroneves on the first lap of today’s 225-mile run. The two Brazilians battled for the first 30 laps before Kanaan dove into the lead entering the first turn on Lap 31. Kanaan led until just before the halfway point, when his Andretti Green Racing teammate Dario Franchitti pushed into the lead on the restart after a caution period.

Kanaan retook the advantage from Franchitti on Lap 134, only to turn it over to another AGR teammate, rookie Marco Andretti, following the last set of pit stops on Lap 140. Andretti, however, had “short-fueled” to gain the position and as a result had to conserve his fuel for the remainder of the race. Kanaan moved back in front for the final time on Lap 179 and successfully held off a charging Sam Hornish to claim his seventh career IndyCar win, and his first victory since Infineon Raceway in 2005.

Despite losing a lap to the leaders mid-race, clever pit strategy and a series of fast race laps saw Hornish climb from eighth on Lap 125 to second at the checker, with Vision Racing’s Tomas Scheckter overcoming a lack of radio communications with his pit to finish third, his best result of 2006. For the second consecutive race, Danica Patrick finished fourth for Rahal Letterman Racing, followed by Andretti and Franchitti to round out the top six.

Tomas Scheckter

Kosuke Matsuura

Tony Kanaan(#11 7-Eleven/Andretti Green Racing Honda) Started 4, finished 1, his first victory of 2006, 7th career IndyCar win:
“This one’s for all the guys on the team. This is why I wake up every morning! I think I’m happier today than I was at the end of 2004 [his championship-winning season]. We needed that [win] so bad. We’ve faced a lot of adversity this year, but I believe this team is mentally stronger than it was a year ago. We win together, we lose together. We got this one, now let’s look for another one.”

Robert Clarke (President, Honda Performance Development) on Honda reliability in today’s race:
"It was a good race, with a good mix of strategies, and an outcome that was not certain until the very end. Once again, it was a very successful weekend for Honda Performance Development with no reliability or performance issues. Our congratulations to Tony and the Andretti Green team. We know it’s been a long dry spell for them and we’re pleased that they’ve broken through. It’s good to see a new winner this weekend.”